People’s Choice Prize announced

Around 54 guests attended the St George Art Awards People’s Choice presentation on Thursday 8 December. Before the prize was officially announced, Arco Music Academy, a professional music school in Hurstville, performed a mix of traditional Western and Chinese music as well as Christmas songs, in front of Hurstville Museum & Gallery.

In the last two months, visitors to the Museum & Gallery were able to vote for their favourite artwork in the St George Art Awards exhibition. It was not an easy decision to make as we had many great artworks across the different categories of youth, painting and sculpture.

And the winner of the People’s Choice Prize 2016 is:

Jamie Parmaxidis for her quirky artwork Harajuku hybrid.

Colourful, unique and contemporary.

I love the way it stands out from all the other artworks, due to its individuality and utilization of an interesting concept of reflection.

Harajuku hybrid contemplates the creation of genetically modified (GM) food, in particular fruits, in contemporary society. Jamie explains that here artwork mirrors the artificial and “man-made” fruits of Japan, from the interior development of genes being copied and altered, to the facade of the fruit.

Japan, the embodiment of a bright, quirky contemporary lifestyle is where I first came to realise the extent of GM foods. In particular, I was fascinated by how perfect fruit looked in department stores, with every fruit being rid of blemishes and many being abnormally large in size.

Jamie Parmaxidis is a local resident of Sylvania and currently studies design and media at University of New South Wales. She has been a finalist of two previous St George Art Awards and was a runner up of the People’s Choice Prize in 2012.

In 2017, Jamie and her artist fellow, Meg Butler, will have an exhibition in the Dragon’s Lair Gallery to showcase their emerging talent.

You still have the chance to see the St George Art Awards exhibition until Thursday, 15 December 2016.